Forms: α. 7 biticle, bittake, -kle, -kell, biddikil, 7–8 bittackle, 7–9 bittacle; β. 8– binacle, binnacle. [The current binnacle first appears after 1750, as a corruption of the earlier bittacle (still found 1839), apparently ad. Sp. bitácula, bitácora ‘a place where the compasse or light is kept in a ship’ (Minsheu), or Pg. bitácola, cogn. w. It. abitacolo, Pr. abitacle, habitacle, F. habitacle:—L. habitāculum habitation, lodge, f. habitāre to inhabit. (A direct adoption of F. habitacle, and subseq. shortening to bittacle in Eng., is phonetically less probable.) The 17th c. biddikil appears to be a transitional form.]
A box on the deck of a ship near the helm, in which the compass is placed.
1622. Recov. Ship Bristol, in Arb., Garner, IV. 584. Watch the biticle, attend the compass.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ii. 11. A square box nailed together with woodden pinnes, called a Bittacle,… and in it alwaies stands the Compasse.
1684. I. Mather, Remark. Provid. (1856), 65. The compass in the biddikil.
1762. Falconer, Shipwr., II. 458. Companion, binnacle, in floating wreck, With compasses and glasses strew’d the deck. [Ibid. (1769), Dict. Marine (1789), F 2. This is called bittacle in all the old sea-books.]
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xiii. Then they went aft to the binnacle again. Ibid. (1839), Phant. Ship, xli. The … shrine of the saint at the bittacle.
1870. R. Ferguson, Electr., 24. To place pieces of soft iron or magnets in the immediate neighbourhood of the binnacle.
b. attrib.
1834. H. Miller, Scenes & Leg., xxviii. (1857), 422. In inventing binnacle lamps.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 142. The binnacle-compass was a sort of fetish to him.
